Our best friend Ted has found an awesome girl whose name is Megan. He has been fancying her for about 3 months now. About 2 months ago, there was talk of a Disneyland trip. Mind you, Scott has a bucket list and on this bucket list is a visit to Club 33 in Disneyland. So about 2 months ago, the planning commenced for a Disneyland trip for the 4 of us. Flights were booked, rooms were booked and Megan began her planning of getting Scott into Club 33.

Fast-forward to now…. Megan is a Disney FAN. When I say fan, I mean FAN (she goes to Disneyland about once a month). She knows the ins and outs of Disneyland and she will let you know it. From the park hopper passes, to fast passes, to shuttle rides, she has it down pat. We really didn’t have to do anything. She is VIP 🙂

We arrived on Saturday evening in the OC. We went straight to the hotel. Ted and Megan decided to stay in but Scott and I were hungry, so we ventured out. Scott had been researching a restaurant called “The Ranch” and he wanted to try it. I am sure glad we did. Such great food.

Food Photos Here

The next day was going to be an early riser. We needed to be on the bus no later than 7:40am (according to Megan). She knew where we needed to be and what time we needed to be there. We took the shuttle over the Disneyland where she had our tickets ready to be picked up. We were in. We had fast passes ready to go. Our first ride was Space Mountain (fun roller coaster in the dark). Our second ride was Star Tours (I was not a fan of this, made me want to throw up, but I held back). She had us on the fast pass train all day.. pretty impressive how she never missed a beat. We enjoyed playing around in the stores and really enjoyed the chocolate store. Had to purchase some chocolate for later.

Store Photos Here

Ride Photos Here

The parade was a good highlight.

Parade Photos Here

Some fun Christmas photos in front of the Christmas tree

Xmas Tree Photos Here

This evening was a night to remember for Scott. It was Club 33! From him being able to ring the doorbell, and someone actually letting him in, to a welcome drink, hot towel, 6 course meal, I think this experience will be a lifetime memory of his.

Club 33 Photos Here

We were able to watch Fantasmic from the balcony of Club 33.

Fantasmic Photos Here

We went on a few rides after dinner (with dresses on). We took some photos in front of the beautiful castle.

Castle Photos Here

The next day, we went to Disney California Adventure. This was a fun park. Again, Megan had us hooked up on the fast passes. My favorite ride here was “Soarin”. It was so surreal, they even have the smells during the ride. Really cool. Tower of Terror was pretty much terror for me. I screamed the whole time. We had a great day at DCA.

We were exhausted at this point. Lots of on the go, go go go. But what an amazing time we had. Can’t wait to go back to Club 33 next year!

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We book SeaCliff for a Thursday-Sunday, so we can get the most out of the distance it takes to get there. It always begins where I will go home, get the motorhome and dogs and meet Scott somewhere, we will load his motorcycle and we will be on our way. This didn’t seem to happen as smoothly this time as I would have hoped. Thursday when I arrived home, I finished packing and loaded the dogs. As I closed to door to pull out of the driveway, I didn’t hear the steps retract. So I put turned off the engine, opened the door and fiddled with the stairs to get them to retract. To my surprise, nothing I did would retract the steps. I called Scott and he tried to walk me through a few scenarios, nothing worked. He rode all the way home, he couldn’t figure out what was wrong. By this time, it was later into the evening and we were exhausted. We would not be heading to SeaCliff tonight unfortunately.

We woke up the next morning and called the mobile RV guy. He came to the house and figured out the issue. He had to order the part but we were able to manually retract the steps so we could head to SeaCliff. We made it that afternoon but now lost about day at the beach. Bummer.

It was such a beautiful day when we finally made it to the beach.

Beach Photos Here

Sunset Photos Here

We walked to the local coffee shop the next morning with the dogs and for lunch, we decided to ride over to Aptos to have lunch. We really enjoyed ourselves, with a view and a local singer.

Food Photos Here

We went back to camp and took a nice walk on the beach with the dogs.

Beach Photos Here

Saturday evening, we met up with some friends for a nice dinner in Aptos.

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We had been contemplating this ride and decided what is a greater way to get better at dual sport than to get out there and ride some crazy trails. We started in Ukiah where we stayed at the Super 8. We were able to drop our bikes at Factory Pipes so they were safe the night before the ride.

We were up pretty early to check in with the Cow Mountain crew. This was a GPS ride so we were able to take off on our own.

Photo of Bikes Here

It began as a beautiful ride through some farmland, then we hit a dirt road that took us to the trailhead. Scott took off first, then me. I didn’t even get around the first huge turn before I put my bike up over the knoll into a bush. Boy, I could tell this was already going to be a long day looking at this trail. Scott helped me pull my bike out of the bush and he rode it up the hill. From there, we went a long. This trail really messed with my head (ALOT). There was some large hills and some steep downhills. There were a few (a lot) falls here and there. These few falls caused my throttle to stick on so I had a few issues where I couldn’t get the throttle to unlock. We pounded it out a few times to get it unstuck.

This trail was slow going and I felt really bad for Scott as he is a much better rider than I am, and I was struggling. There was a sweep that was behind us, so that made me even more anxious because I was holding him up also. What could I do except keep on keepin’ on. Lots of uphills/downhills to get through before coming to the road. Once I was on the road, I was golden. I have no issue with dirt roads, it is the single track cliffs that mess with my head.

This ride then took us around Clearlake on pavement, approx 40 miles. When we finally got off onto a dirt road, Scott hollers to me that he has a flat tire. He must have been riding the street for awhile with this flat :/ We pull over and begin to get out looks when 3 sweeps come up on us. They were kind enough to help us get his tire changed. Then we were onto the trail again. We were going pretty good when all of a sudden, I came around a corner and hit a little ditch and gave it too much throttle and ended up over a cliff and down about 15 feet. Don’t worry, nobody was hurt, not even the bike.

Photo of Bike down cliff Here

The rest of the dirt ride was uneventful (no crashes) and actually was a lot of fun and challenging. We made it to the lunch spot where they had burgers waiting for us. We were able to hang out for a bit with all the riders. At this point, it was later in the day and we decided to bail out and head to the hotel. We were told later that we should have finished as it is a fun little dirt ride. We were just so exhausted at this point, that we just wanted a shower and relaxation. We booked The Lodge at Blue Lakes.. a quaint little lodge.

Lodge Photos Here

What was nice about this group is that they have an overnight bag transport to the hotel you are staying at and they will come and pick them up and take them back to the start of the ride.

When we arrived back at the lodge, we noticed that Scott had another flat tire on his 500. Not sure what happened but that is 2 flat tires in 1 day. So we knew that we somehow needed to get the bike back to Ukiah at some point. We weren’t too worried and would figure it out the next day.

We had a really nice dinner at Blue Wing Saloon in Upper Lake. Really quaint restaurant with an outdoor patio. It was a really nice time and the food was awesome

Dinner Photos Here

Scott ended up getting a ride with the organizer back to Ukiah where he picked up the car and trailer and headed back to the lodge to pick up the bikes. We headed home in some G Force winds. This was the day all the fires started 🙁

We were told that the group is doing the Lost Coast next year which will be a great ride.

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This is our 4th or 5th year doing the Nevada County Woodriders Dual Sport ride. Always a great time. This year, there wasn’t as big of a turnout as years passed. I believe it was due to the difficulty of the trails. The trails were the same as the previous year. Scott and Jason decided to join us on this ride. Cesar was supposed to make it down from Eugene but work got in the way. Bummer!

We stayed at Diablo Campground again. This campground is just down the road from the camp where we would join the rest of the riders. We were up and at em early and made our way down. It was really cold, REALLY cold.

Photos of Group Here

We began the trek up the road to the cutoff to the trail. I was a little hesitant still because of my new bike but I did pretty well. A few hiccups here and there but what’s the fun if you don’t drop the dirt bike at least once, or twice, or…. :). The good thing is that the bike is light enough that I can pick it up myself (for the most part). A the “V,” I decided I would bail out and head back to the RV. I am sure glad I did because Scott said the rest was pretty treacherous. We had both bailed out last year at the “V” but Scott was ready to take on the rest of the trail. So Scott, Scott and Jason headed on through. Scott didn’t realize but he video’d about 1 hour of trail riding. He got some great video of the treacherous trail.

Photos of Trail Here

Scott and I went and had lunch at the Woodriders camp and ended up scoring once again on a lot of swag. We cleaned house last year from all the tickets that we bought. We came back this year with quite a bit of stuff too.

Photo of Swag Here

We cooked a great spaghetti meal for all of us.

Photo of Dinner Here

The next day, we decided to take it easy but we wanted to show Jason and Scott around so we took them to Sardine Lake and up to Mills Peak Lookout.

Photos of Sardine Lake/Mills Peak

It was a great time but I think the Woodriders will be at a new location next year due to the lack of interest. Always look forward to these rides.

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We were scheduled to have a dirt bike training class on Saturday, so we decided to fly up to Seattle on Thursday evening so we could have all day Friday to explore. Scott has always wanted to visit the San Juan Islands, so we got in the car and headed that way. We arrived mid day to the harbor, purchased our ferry tickets and jumped on the ferry. This was a new experience for me as I had never been on a ferry that carried cars across to the islands. The ferry ride was really nice and we were able to see a lot of area on the ride. When we arrived at Friday Harbor, we were very hungry and decided, what better place to have lunch than here… Very tasty food with some AMAZING views.

Downriggers Photo Here

From here, we tripped around the town and explored for a few hours (can’t forget the Goat Cheese Cheesecake that Scott had) before getting our ferry ride back.

Cheesecake Photo Here

It was an early morning for us. We got some breakfast and headed over to our Dirt First dirt bike training. This was one-on-one training. It was just Scott and I with one instructor for the whole day. It was some of the best off road training. He was very in tune to both of our needs and we learned so much.

Riding Photos Here

We got sooooo dirty but learned how to turn smoothly while sitting and standing, riding over logs, riding on side bills, and the best part was learning how to slide going 25 miles per hour and braking. Really enjoyed the class and can’t wait to take Level 3 with him.

That evening, we thought we should treat ourselves to a scrumptious meal with a beautiful view.

Meal Photos

The next day, we headed back towards Seattle. We were driving past Everett, WA when Scott mentioned Boeing. So we detoured back and decided to take a tour of Boeing. What an incredible experience that was. No cameras allowed in the manufacturing bays but we were able to take plenty of photos. What a treat that was.

Boeing Photos Here

From here, we tripped our way into Seattle where we had some lunch in a shipping container (great food) and we took a tour of the market. From here, we walked around downtown Seattle. We eyed a Starbucks Reserve and couldn’t resist. We had never heard of the Reserve so we had to take a peek. I am sure glad we did because this was an experience to remember. One of the two in the US, they made Scott a Dark Chocolate Mocha and they made me a Dark Chocolate Hot Chocolate. WOW… I have to say, that was tasty.

Starbucks Photos Here

From here, it was about that time to start heading towards the airport. Throughout the weekend, I noticed one of our long time friends from one of our Indonesia vacations just happened to be in Seattle. We hadn’t seen him in about 4 years, so we met him at his hotel for a few minutes. It was great to see Anto.

This does conclude our Seattle adventures… Until next time Seattle…

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We FINALLY got my dad to come camping with us over Labor Day weekend. He came down from Cottonwood in his cab over camper, hauling his side-by-side. We brought the dirt bikes in hopes that we would get out and take an adventure.

The first day was pretty chill. Dad and Tracy wanted to go into town and do some site-seeing, I went with them and Ted and Scott stayed behind at camp. We indulged ourselves in some much needed soft serve at the Frostee

Frostee Photo Here

That evening, we introduced my dad and Tracy to our awesome camping neighbors, Bob and Pat. They invited us over for happy hour. We couldn’t resist and we always have a great time with them.

Happy Hour Photos Here

We also had a fabulous Moose burger (from Dad’s Alaska moose) dinner at Bob and Pat’s.

Dinner Photos Here

The next day, we decided it would be nice to go for a dual sport ride while dad and Tracy took the side-by-side. This was a great time and was able to get out and enjoy the scenery of Plumas National Forest.

Riding Photos Here

I hope to have many more camping trips with my dad. I loved spending time with him.

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We have never stayed at Look Lake until now. We have driven to it a few times and always talked about staying here but never did. Now is the time. We arrived late in the evening, after dark and found our spot. It was a tight fit but we made do. We unloaded the bikes and with it being late, we decided to call it a night. The next day, we decided to take a stroll with the dogs. We thought it would be more comfortable down by the boat ramp so we decided to move the motorhome to the boat ramp. This was much better and more space to spread out. We were much more comfortable here and we were closer to the water.

We played a lot of cards and contemplated many times on taking a dirt bike ride. We were very lazy this trip and did not take a dual sport ride but we did ride to watch the beautiful sunset around the lake

Sunset Photos Here

We do like this place as it seems very secluded. Even though there is a lot of people, it is spread out and you don’t notice them. Also, there is no cell phone reception… so we played a lot of cards, hung out with the pooches and had a lot of good conversation. Loved it.

Relaxing Photos

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The last few years, we have decided to keep it low key and just spend a few days in Tahoe instead of traveling far. It has been really nice to keep it simple and close. We have really enjoyed ourselves. We stayed at the Zephyr Cove RV Park, which is right across the street from the beach. You can’t go wrong, especially now that I have a paddle board. The girls decided to leave early afternoon on Thursday to make it up to Tahoe before dark, to settle in, and to begin the festivities. This always begins with a cocktail or two or…..

Cocktail Photos Here

We decided to stay in the first night and play games and drink. It was a relaxing evening.

The next day, we planned to go to the beach and paddle board. Stephanie’s friend Marianne came over from Reno for a visit. She brought her paddle board so we all were able to enjoy the water.

PaddleBoard Photos Here

That evening, Stephanie (our amazing chef) made us a wonderful paella for dinner and we played cards and many drinking games.

Paella Photos Here

The next morning, we had mimosas and an amazing breakfast made by Chef Steph. We spent the day hanging out, drinking, relaxing and play games. That evening, we went to town to check out Scott’s friends night club/restaurant. We saw some of Scott’s old friends, who were generous on the drinks :)~

Club Photos Here

These girls trips are always a good time. A great time to relax with the ladies.

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Another camping trip in the books at the Rivers Edge. Love love love this place. It is a great area to ride the street bikes or the dirt bikes. Sometimes it is hard to choose whether we bring the dirt bikes or the street bikes. This time, we brought the dirt bikes. We didn’t do a lot of riding this trip but we did ride to eat :). We tried a lot of new food spots this trip, which we enjoyed.

Food Photos Here

We did take a ride up into Plumas National Park where we have been a few other times. It is always so beautiful.

Riding Photos Here

We had some of THE BEST pizza I think we have ever had in Blairsden. It was SO good. A must have.

More Food Photos Here

After that, we took another quick ride up in the mountains. Can’t help but take in the breathtaking views.

Riding Photos Here

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There always comes a time when you need to upgrade. Scott has put so much effort into making this dirt bike the best it can be. He wanted it to be perfect before I even set eyes on it. We decided to take a road trip in the RV down to Murietta to pick up the beauty. We arrived to So Cal on Saturday at KTM of Murietta. I was so excited to see this bike. I rode it around the block and was already in love. We spent some time there at the dealer making sure she was perfect. And she was. I was so excited to be bringing home my new toy for the stable.

KTM Photos Here

That evening, we thought we would catch up with Hugh and Joan so we rode to town from our campground and had dinner with them. We walked the old town and had a great evening.

This was a short trip but it was for a new toy that I would take on some great adventures.